La-La Land to release 15-disc original series score set

Wow, season 3 had really long scores, didn't it? We've got only two scores out of six so far that were under 30 minutes, and two that are over 37 minutes. And there aren't any partial scores like in seasons 1-2. Everything's either a full new score or a finite amount of source music (with the exception of the brief "Headin' Out to Eden" instrumental reprise).

Film Score Monthly is closing down? What a shame. Will it still be possible to obtain the albums they produced through some other source?

Great selection of samples on this interview. Oh my gods, "Kirk's Philosophy." I was literally weeping with joy as I listened. All of Star Trek's optimism summed up in a single cue. "Risk is our business! It's what this starship is all about! It's why we're aboard her!" Some very powerful moments in "I Know That Voice" and "Chekov Gets Killed" too.

Aha, so Fried's theme in Duning's scores does get a credit, as expected. I hadn't expected the "Requiem" Brahms paraphrase to be on Disc 4, though. And I was wrong about the ordering of the Duning scores. This leaves "And the Children Shall Lead" for Disc 5, which is kind of an anticlimax, the least impressive score of the season. Hopefully there will be enough cool extras and surprises there to make up for it. But what else could there be by this point? I think we've got all the source music now -- the Orion dance, the "Way to Eden" and "Plato's Stepchildren" songs, the Brahms.

And this should be the last disc that has any previously released content, although only in new performances. Label X Vol. 1 included a suite from "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" arranged for the album by George Duning himself and conducted by Tony Bremner, and selections from "The Empath" were on Varese Sarabande Vol. 2 conducted by Fred Steiner. Cues that have not had a previous version released are:

ITITNB:
Enter Marvick
My Life Is Here/I Must Know/Starship Party
Unknown Void
What Is Ugly?/Why?
Mind Link/Spock—Kollos
Hero Spock
Don’t Move/Spock Out

Thanks for the interview link, Neil. Good to hear more about the process. I've heard that Pops arrangement of the Courage theme before, I think on the Cincinnati Pops album Star Tracks with Erich Kunzel conducting. I think it may have debuted there and been picked up by the Boston Pops later, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, good track selection from "Enemy Within." I really like the first part of "An Impostor." What's interesting, though, about "Bruised Knuckles" -- and really a lot of the "Enemy Within" score -- is that I tend to think more of "Arena" when I hear it, and I'm probably not alone there.

Cues that have not had a previous version released are:
ITITNB:
...
My Life Is Here/I Must Know/Starship Party

Click to expand...

According to the listing Neil provided, "My Life Is Here" includes the Fried Spock theme. That theme can be heard bookending the suite on the Bremner, so I think some version of that cue must have made it into the suite, whether listed or not.

^Yes, I know the Fried cue is in both of the Duning suites, both the Bremner ITITNB and the Steiner "Empath." My exact words were: "Neither album acknowledges the incorporation of Fried's 'Mr. Spock.'" Which means that both albums did incorporate it into their suites, but neither of them acknowledged Fried's authorship of that motif. The full cues were included, but there was no asterisk and footnote crediting Fried as there is here.

I was expecting the "Children Shall Lead" score to include a notation for "Includes 'Ring Around the Rosie' (Traditional)." Maybe Duning's version is different enough not to count as the actual tune? At least a couple of bars of it seem identical, and usually just one or two bars is enough to get a footnote.

So most of this is re-recorded library cues. I guess I'm not surprised. I do remember that a lot of pilot and "Man Trap" cues were tracked in season 3. Offhand I don't remember what S3 episodes used the tracked Fried cues included here. Interesting that Wilbur Hatch conducted the reused Courage cues. And what are those "Act Out LM131" takes conducted by Duning? There's no composer credit on that.

The alternates could be interesting -- variants that weren't used in the scores? Cool.

And I'd forgotten the presidential fanfare in "The Savage Curtain." Somehow I never really noticed that there was a bit of new music there. I'm still surprised that Hatch was working on TOS in season 3, since he was Desilu's musical director and Desilu was gone by that point.

So anyway, that's the last track listing to be released. I'd be sad that it's over -- except the actual box set goes on sale in less than 23 hours! Soon it will be mine, ah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!

Here we go folks - the last interview with some of the producers who worked on this fantastic set. I spoke to Jeff Bond who researched and wrote the extensive liner notes, the interview is here and there are a final FIVE new sample tracks at the bottom of the page!